JP2011008613A - Online risk learning system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent reduction in performance of online risk recognition due to biased learning.SOLUTION: An integration unit 5 integrates the function of a base unit 3 holding advance knowledge with the function of a learning unit 4 having the recognition performance which is changed according to the progress of learning according to a use environment, and the integration unit 5 finally performs risk recognition. According to this, even when biased learning occurs in the learning unit 4, the recognition performance of the base unit 3 which maintains the initial performance in product shipping can be reflected to the system to eliminate a reduction in risk recognition performance, and basic performances can be maintained with specialization according to the use environment.

Description

  The present invention relates to an online risk learning system that adaptively learns and recognizes risks contained in the external environment of a moving object such as an automobile.

  In recent years, as a preventive safety technology for moving objects such as automobiles, a camera is installed to image the external environment, the captured image is processed to recognize risk information contained in the external environment, and alert the driver Technology has been developed to assist driving or assist driving.

  Such a technique for recognizing danger information is disclosed in, for example, Patent Document 1. The technique of Patent Literature 1 sets a risk parameter for each type and attribute of an object in the environment around the vehicle, and calculates the risk based on the risk parameter.

  In the prior art disclosed in Patent Document 1, factors that lead to danger such as pedestrians, oncoming vehicles, obstacles, white lines, etc. are set, and the risk is recognized based on these factors. Is realized in the form of incorporating risk factors and recognition assumed by the developer into the system in advance.

  However, the actual environment such as the driving environment of automobiles is diverse, such as weather changes, the presence of pedestrians, cars, structures on the road, etc. Furthermore, the number of people driving is also diverse. There is a limit in one of the preset recognition models, and if the factors leading to danger are not recognized with high accuracy, not only the overall risk can be recognized, but also dangerous scenes other than those assumed in advance. There is a problem that cannot be recognized.

  For this reason, in this patent application, the applicant has learned online experience that allows the system to autonomously learn the experience in an actual environment and to recognize the degree of danger corresponding to various external environments. A system is proposed.

JP 2003-81039 A JP 2008-238831 A

  In the technology of Patent Document 2, since the system autonomously learns the experience in the actual environment, it is possible to specialize the system according to the user's usage environment, but the user is biased to a specific environment. If the operation is performed, partial learning occurs, and there is a risk that the pre-learning result set at the product shipment stage may be lost (forgotten). For this reason, when an environment different from the user's normal usage environment is encountered, there is a possibility that sufficient recognition performance may not be obtained.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an online risk learning system that can prevent the performance degradation of online risk recognition due to partial learning.

  In order to achieve the above object, an online risk learning system according to the present invention is an online risk learning system that detects an external environment of a mobile object and recognizes a risk included in the external environment in a learning manner. A base unit for holding the learning result and a learning unit for holding the online learning result of the risk are provided, and the risk level by the base unit and the risk level by the learning unit are fused at a predetermined fusion rate, and online It is characterized by being output as the only risk level.

  According to the present invention, even if partial learning occurs, it is possible to prevent a decrease in online risk recognition performance, and it is possible to maintain basic performance while specializing in accordance with a user's usage environment.

The block diagram of an online risk learning system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. As above, an explanatory diagram showing an image area for feature amount extraction Same as above, conceptual diagram of state recognition Same as above, conceptual diagram of learning with a one-dimensional self-organizing map Same as above, explanatory diagram showing the distribution of self-organizing maps after learning Same as above, explanatory diagram showing the relationship between risk level and risk probability Same as above, explanatory diagram of risk propagation Same as above, explanatory diagram of information propagation Same as above, explanatory diagram showing expansion of risk information Same as above, flowchart of fusion rate and fusion parameter calculation processing Same as above, histogram showing number of times each neuron learns Same as above, explanatory diagram of fusion rate table Same as above, explanatory diagram showing an example of recognition result output The block diagram of an online risk learning system according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
The online risk learning system of the present invention is a system that is mounted on a moving body such as an automobile and adaptively recognizes information related to the risk (risk) included in the environment from the detection result of the external environment. Will grow online so that it can adaptively recognize risks even in environments that were not envisioned.

  The sensing of the outside environment can use sensing information from various sensor devices provided as an input system of the system, for example, a camera that picks up the outside world with monocular or stereo vision, or a radar device such as a laser or a millimeter wave. That is, this system is not basically dependent on the sensor device that detects the external environment, but in a broad sense, is a learning system that learns the correlation between the external environment information obtained from the sensor device and the risk information.

  In this embodiment, an online risk learning system is applied to a vehicle such as an automobile, and risk information is extracted using image information obtained by imaging the outside world with an in-vehicle camera and vehicle information such as a driver's driving operation and a driving state of the vehicle. An example will be described. In other words, the online risk learning system of this embodiment recognizes the risk by directly associating the risk with the information obtained from the image, and learns the association from the environment encountered in the actual driving, and adaptively Perform risk recognition.

  Specifically, the driver is a teacher in learning of the recognizer, risk information is extracted from the driving operation of the driver, and artificial intelligence technology is used to relate the risk information based on the driving operation and the image information obtained from the camera. To learn. For example, when the driver performs an operation action that avoids a pedestrian, the system determines that the situation is dangerous, and teaches that the image obtained at that time is dangerous.

  As a result, when a similar situation (image) enters the system at the next opportunity, it is output that it is dangerous, and a warning can be given to the driver. In this system, risk is handled probabilistically. As a result, it is possible to handle a case where the risk is different even in a similar situation or an inherently probabilistic risk that cannot be determined only by the obtained image information.

  Hereinafter, the online risk learning system of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. The online risk learning system 1 in this embodiment is configured by a single computer system or a plurality of computer systems connected via a network or the like. As a sensor for detecting the external environment of the vehicle 100, a camera 2 having an image sensor such as a CCD or a CMOS is used.

  The online risk learning system 1 includes a base unit 3 that holds a risk recognition function based on offline pre-learning, a learning unit 4 that holds a risk recognition function learned online, and the risk recognition function and learning unit 4 of the base unit 3. The fusion unit 5 that fuses the risk recognition function and performs risk recognition with the fused recognition function is provided as a main component. The base unit 3 and the learning unit 4 are provided with risk level calculation units 33 and 43 that calculate a risk level as a function of each unit.

  The online risk learning system 1 creates teacher information in risk learning from the amount of operation of the vehicle 100 for data calculation for each unit 3, 4, 5, and sends it to the learning unit 4. The image feature quantity extraction unit 7 that extracts the feature quantity of the image captured in 2, converts the image feature quantity into a state quantity, calculates risk learning information from the state quantity based on the recognition result of the fusion unit 5, and 3 and the fusion unit calculation unit 8 to be sent to the learning unit 4, the learning amount for risk learning is calculated from the image feature amount, and the learning amount calculation unit 9 to be sent to the learning unit 4, the base unit 3 and the learning unit 4 are fused. A fusion calculation unit 10 is provided.

  The base unit 3 and the learning unit 4 basically have a risk recognition function of the same framework. Although the details will be described later, this system performs clustering by converting the feature quantity mainly extracted from the external image captured by the in-vehicle camera 2 into a quantity called a state, and using the vehicle operation information as a teacher, the probability density distribution of the risk for each state Recognize the risk using the risk distribution table learned. In the present embodiment, each SOM neuron is recognized as a state using a self-organizing map (SOM), which is a kind of hierarchical neural network.

  That is, the base unit 3 and the learning unit 4 each have the SOM and the risk distribution table formed by the prior learning in the initial state at the time of product shipment, or the same recognition performance assuming a general user, or It is set so as to have different recognition performance intentionally depending on personal driving tendency. In the following, the SOM and risk distribution table held by the base unit 3 will be described as a base SOM 31 and a base risk distribution table 32, and the SOM and risk distribution table held by the learning unit 4 will be described as a learning SOM 41 and a learning risk distribution table 42, as appropriate. Describe.

  In the online operation in the market, only the learning unit 4 learns with the passage of the system operation time associated with vehicle travel, and the learning SOM 41 and the learning risk distribution table 42 are adaptively updated according to the user's usage environment. On the other hand, the base unit 3 is pre-learned so as to ensure a predetermined recognition performance in various generally assumed situations, and knowledge obtained by pre-learning for online operations in the market is only used. (Base SOM 31 and base risk distribution table 32) are held.

  In this case, when the user performs a driving biased toward a specific driving environment, such as a driving biased toward urban driving or driving mainly in an environment where there is little traffic in the suburbs, the learning unit 4 may cause partial learning. When this partial learning occurs, there is a possibility that sufficient recognition performance cannot be obtained when a running environment different from the user's normal usage environment is encountered.

  Therefore, in this system, the function of the base unit 3 that holds prior knowledge and the function of the learning unit 4 whose recognition performance changes according to the progress of learning according to the user's usage environment are fused in the fusion unit 5, and finally The risk is recognized by the fusion unit 5. That is, the fusion unit 5 has a fusion SOM 51 obtained by fusing the base SOM 31 and the learning SOM 41, and the unique risk level is obtained from the fusion risk level table 52 that holds the relationship with the risk level corresponding to each neuron of the fusion SOM 51. calculate.

  As a result, even if partial learning occurs in the learning unit 4, the recognition performance of the base unit 3 that maintains the initial performance at the time of product shipment is reflected in the system to eliminate the deterioration of the risk recognition performance. It is possible to maintain the basic performance while specializing in accordance with the use environment of the user.

  Hereinafter, with respect to details of each process in the online risk learning system 1, (A) teacher information generation processing for generating teacher information from vehicle operation information, (B) image feature amount extraction processing for extracting feature amounts from images, (C) Fusion unit calculation processing for converting image feature amount into state amount and determining SOM winner neuron, (D) SOM learning amount calculation processing for calculating SOM learning amount from image feature amount, (E) Risk of base unit 3 The risk level calculation process for calculating the level and the risk level of the learning unit 4 and (F) the fusion risk recognition process for recognizing the risk by fusing the base unit 3 and the learning unit 4 will be described separately.

(A) Teacher information creation processing The teacher creation unit 6 creates teacher information for the learning risk distribution table of the learning unit 4 based on the vehicle operation information. In this embodiment, learning is not performed when risk is extracted from the vehicle operation information, and the teacher creating unit 6 extracts risk information from the driver operation information using a preset rule. In the risk information extraction process according to this rule, the risk information is handled as one-dimensional data with a level.

  Specifically, the risk level is, for example, 11 levels of 0 to 10 (integer value), and the higher the value, the higher the risk. However, the risk information here is not intended to recognize the risk at regular intervals, such as every 30 Hz frame. This is because the actual driver's operation is not performed only by risk, and it is considered that the proportion of operations that accompanies risk is a part that is less than 10% of the total driving, for example. is there.

  That is, the first goal is to recognize risk information from driver operation data only when there is a certain degree of risk that affects the driver's operation behavior. Therefore, for risk 0, the output indicates not only that there is no risk, but also that there is no teacher information.

  In addition, risk recognition rules are arbitrarily set so as to fit the reality as much as possible. The rules shown in (1) to (5) below are parallelized, and the risk with the largest value in each condition is selected. Teacher risk.

(1) Did you brake suddenly? Set the risk level according to the difference in brake pressure between frames. For example, if the difference in brake pressure is 1 × 10 ² kPa or more, there is a risk, 1 × 10 ² kPa is risk 5, 1 × 10 ³ kPa is risk 10, and the difference between the brake pressure is between risk 5 and risk 10. Set linearly according to.

(2) Did you step on the brake? Set the risk level according to the brake pressure at a specified vehicle speed or higher. For example, when the vehicle speed is 10 km / h or higher and the brake pressure is 20 × 10 ² kPa or higher, the risk is 10, when the brake pressure is 10 × 10 ² kPa or higher, the risk is 6, and when the brake pressure is 5 × 10 ² kPa or higher. Is risk 2.

(3) Has the steering wheel been turned off? If the absolute value of the difference in the steering wheel angle between frames is greater than or equal to a set value (for example, 10 degrees) with no turn signal, risk 5 is assumed.

(4) Was the accelerator suddenly released? The risk level is set according to the difference in accelerator opening between frames at a predetermined vehicle speed or higher. For example, if the vehicle speed is 5 km / h or more and the difference in accelerator opening is -1% or less, the risk is 4.

(5) Is the accelerator stepped on? Set the risk level according to the accelerator opening during acceleration. Whether or not the vehicle is accelerating is determined by the differential value of the vehicle speed. If the differential value of the vehicle speed is 0 or more (during acceleration) and the accelerator opening is 1% or less, the risk is 2.

  Of course, the above rules can be added and deleted, and can be adjusted to be more realistic. It is also possible to perform “learning acquisition of risk recognition from driver data” by incorporating an algorithm for automatically generating the above rules, and further incorporating fuzzy elements into the above rules.

(B) Feature amount extraction processing The image feature amount extraction unit 7 inputs a captured image from the in-vehicle camera 2 and converts it into a digital image having a predetermined gradation through video process processing such as noise removal, gain adjustment, and γ correction. Then, the feature amount of this image is extracted. That is, feature amounts such as edge information, motion information, and color information are extracted from the obtained image, and the information is held as an N-dimensional vector.

  The N-dimensional vector may include vehicle information other than the image feature amount, for example, information such as a change in vehicle speed and yaw angle. The image data handled in this embodiment is an image captured by a monocular color camera, but may be an image obtained from an infrared camera or a distance image obtained from a stereo camera. In addition, as described above, information from a laser, a millimeter wave, or the like can be used. In this case, the image feature amount should be more generally called an external environment feature amount.

  The extraction of the image feature amount is data extraction for subsequent risk recognition. In general, data having no correlation with risk recognition adversely affects the recognition. That is, in this feature quantity extraction process, it is not a good idea to increase the feature quantity unnecessarily, and conversely, not using a necessary feature quantity also deteriorates accuracy.

  For this reason, feature quantity selection as to which feature quantity should be used occurs as an issue, but as described above, when feature quantity selection is obtained in a learning manner, higher-level learning of risk recognition described below is performed. This is disadvantageous for online learning in terms of computational complexity and memory capacity.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, an example will be described in which the feature amount extraction portion is treated as fixed. When learning, it is only necessary to evaluate the recognition rate of the system as a standard and optimize the combination of each feature quantity. This includes heuristics such as full search of combinations and genetic algorithm (GA). Existing optimization methods such as simple search methods can be used.

  In the present embodiment, the type of feature quantity preset by the image feature quantity extraction unit 7 is extracted. Here, the process is divided into three elements, and feature amounts set for each element are extracted. The three elements are preprocessing, feature amount calculation, and region setting. Specifically, as shown below, 6 types of data are extracted in the pre-processing, 10 types in the feature amount calculation, and 4 types in the region setting, and a total of 240 (6 × 10 × 4) dimensions are obtained by combining them. Extract data.

<Pretreatment>
Six types of filter processing are performed on the input image, sobel, vertical sobel, horizontal sobel, inter-frame difference, luminance, and saturation to extract six-dimensional feature data.

<Feature amount>
Ten types of calculation processing are performed on the pixel values of the filtered image: average, variance, maximum value, minimum value, horizontal centroid, vertical centroid, contrast, uniformity, entropy, and fractal dimension. Feature quantity data is extracted.

<Area>
As shown in FIG. 2, an area A0 is set in the image, and four types of areas, that is, the entire setting area A0, the left area A1, the right area A2, and the central area A3 in the setting area A0 are set to 4 types. Extract dimension feature data.

  Note that the 240-dimensional feature value may be narrowed down according to the computing performance of the online system. For example, in addition to images, vehicle data may also be used to extract 6-dimensional feature quantities such as the average and variance of the Sobel over the entire screen, the average of inter-frame differences over the entire screen, the variance, the vehicle speed, and the steering wheel angle. .

  In the above feature quantity extraction process, each feature quantity is normalized, but the theoretical range is inefficient. Therefore, the distribution of each feature quantity is evaluated in advance, and the evaluation result is used as a basis. The maximum value and the minimum value are set to, and normalized to a numerical value of 0 to 1. In that case, the maximum and minimum values may be changed dynamically. For example, when a value exceeding the maximum value or a value below the minimum value is input, the maximum value is expanded so that the range is expanded.・ Change the minimum value. Conversely, if the data near the minimum and maximum values has not been entered for a while, the range is changed to narrow.

  Although basic feature values are used here, it is also possible to calculate time-series fluctuations of feature values, such as calculating motion information using past frame information, and use the information as feature values. . Furthermore, in order to improve the accuracy of risk recognition as a whole, high-accuracy image processing can be added to this feature amount extraction processing, for example, pedestrian recognition results, road white line recognition results, obstacle recognition results, etc. May be incorporated in the extracted data here. In this sense, the present system can also be regarded as a system that recognizes risks by integrating individual external recognition results.

(C) Fusion Unit Calculation Processing The fusion unit calculation unit 8 converts the obtained N-dimensional feature quantity vector into a quantity called a one-dimensional state. The state is an image in which the input image is divided into scenes according to the location where the image is traveling, the weather, the traveling state, and the like. Actually, at the time of online learning, it is not possible to explicitly teach which scene it is now, so the input data is clustered into a class with M states. That is, the recognition of the state is processed by the function of the discriminator that outputs the quantity of the state from the input image feature quantity data (however, the output of this discriminator is handled stochastically without determining one state. Can also).

  The learning in this process adapts the internal structure of this discriminator to the actual environment using the input data and teacher data, but the teacher in learning here directly determines the state of this input data. Instead of teaching, the risk recognized from the output state can be recognized as efficiently and accurately as possible.

The recognition process as a classifier performs a prototype type identification process on input data. Here, if the state number is S, each state has a representative value, which is designated as prot _s (i). The state representative value prot _s (i) is an N-dimensional vector, i = 0, 1,..., N−1.

Assuming that the input data (feature vector) is In (i), the input vector is obtained by the distance L (s) from the state representative value prot _s (i) as shown in the following equation (1). Whether it belongs to a state is recognized.
L (s) = (Σ _i (prot _s (i) −In (i)) ² ) ^1/2 (1)

The state (state number) K to which the input data belongs is obtained by the minimum value of the distance L (s) as shown in the following equation (2), and is recognized as the state representative state having the closest input vector. Is done.
K = min _s (L (s)) (2)

  FIG. 3 shows a case where attention is paid to three of the N dimensions. Since the input data is closer to the state S1 than the state S6, the input data is recognized as being in the state of S1. The above is the basic state recognition, which is to determine the state of the input data.

  In this case, in FIG. 3, the distance between the state S1 and the state S6 is not so different, but the input data is recognized as the state S1 because the distance to the state S1 is slightly close. That is, in a region where the distance between the state S1 and the state S6 is almost the same, the recognition may become unstable.

Therefore, the instability of recognition can be eliminated by further expanding and treating the state as probabilistic. That is, if the probability that the input data is in the state s is P (s), the probability of the state is obtained by the following equations (3) and (4) using the distance L (s). Here, σ is a parameter, and the smaller the value, the more effective the state becomes deterministic.
P (s) = (exp (−L (s) / σ)) / z (3)
z = Σ _s exp (−L (s) / σ) (4)

  As described above, when states are stochastically determined on a scale according to the distance from the input data, it is necessary to calculate all states in the subsequent calculations. Therefore, in order to reduce the amount of calculation, the probability below a certain value may be set to 0 and may not be treated as a calculation.

  In the definition of P (s), if 1 is set only when s = K and 0 is set otherwise, it is the same as when the state is fixed.

  In each state, the representative value is updated based on learning of the SOM, and the learning SOM 41 of the learning unit 4 is updated. In the SOM, neurons arranged in the M dimension (usually two dimensions) each have a vector value (referred to as the weight of the connection with the normal input), and the winner neuron for the input is determined based on the vector distance. , And output to the base unit 3 and the learning unit 4. In the present embodiment, the winner neuron is determined based on the fusion SOM 51 of the fusion unit 5.

(D) SOM learning amount calculation processing The learning amount calculation unit 9 inputs the reference vector values of the winner neuron having the same number as the winner neuron of the fusion SOM 51 and the surrounding neurons with respect to the learning SOM 41 held by the learning unit 4. The update amount is calculated so as to approach. This calculation is repeated, and learning is performed without a teacher so that the learning SOM 41 can optimally express the distribution of input data. An image of learning by the one-dimensional SOM is shown in FIG.

In this system, learning by SOM is as follows. However, in this system, it is assumed that neurons (states) are connected in one dimension. If the state number of the winner neuron is K, the representative vector prot _s is updated (learned) according to the following equation (5).
prot _s (i) → prot _s (i) + α (In (i) −prot _s (i) (5)

Here, α in the equation (5) is a learning rate coefficient indicating the weight of update, and is expressed by the following equation (6).
α = a · b (t) · c (D (s, K), t) · e (t) (6)
Where a: learning coefficient
b: Time decay coefficient
c: Domain attenuation coefficient
D (s, K): Distance in the connection between the neuron to be updated and the winner vector
e: Teacher information coefficient

  The parameters a, b, and c in the equation (6) are parameters that are also used in normal SOM, and the time attenuation coefficient b is a function of the learning elapsed time t (usually indicating how many times it is updated). Decreases with increasing time t. Further, the distance D (s, K) is not a distance in the feature amount space. For example, in FIG. 4, the neuron next to the winner neuron is the distance 1 and the neighbor is the distance 2.

  On the other hand, the region attenuation coefficient c is a function of the distance D (s, K), and the value decreases as the distance D (s, K) increases. It is set not to be updated. The region attenuation coefficient c is also a function of the time t, and the value decreases as the time t increases. Furthermore, in this system, a teacher information coefficient e (t) indicating teacher information is introduced, which will be described later.

  As described above, in the learning algorithm of SOM, in the initial stage of learning, a wide range of neurons are updated so as to approach the input data, and as learning progresses, both the number of neurons to be updated and the amount to be updated are reduced. The rate coefficient α (update weight) becomes 0, and learning ends. In the initial state, normally, neurons are randomly arranged near the center on the vector space.

  FIG. 5 shows an example of SOM distribution after learning. Although the actual feature amount space is 240 dimensions, FIG. 5 shows only three dimensions, and each point of the graph indicates input data. Actually, each point is expressed as a colored point, and the magnitude of the risk is represented by the color. Black dots are representative vectors for each state, and black lines connecting them are SOM connections.

  In the above, learning methods that can optimally express the distribution of input data have been described, but what is actually required is that the distribution of input data can be optimally expressed in order to recognize risks. SOM is originally an unsupervised learning method (incoming data is treated equally and learned), but in this system, the above-mentioned teacher information is used as an efficient learning method for recognizing risks. Learning is performed with risk information given by a coefficient e (t).

  Although details will be described later, the risk is recognized in the form of the risk probability of the recognized state. This represents the probability that the state has a risk. As a specific learning method, when input data at time t has teacher information called risk level R obtained from driver information, if the risk probability of the recognized state has a high probability of risk level R, the teacher information The coefficient e (t) is increased, and if it is smaller, the teacher information coefficient e (t) is decreased. If teacher information cannot be obtained, the teacher information coefficient e (t) is reduced.

  As a result, as the learning progresses, the recognized state has the risk at that time with a high probability, that is, the risk recognition accuracy is improved. The specific setting of the teacher information coefficient e (t) will be described in the next risk recognition process.

  For learning when the state is obtained probabilistically, the winner neuron is expressed by a weight corresponding to the probability and is updated by an update amount corresponding to the weight. However, since there is a problem that the amount of calculation increases, in this system, at the time of learning, the winner neuron is determined to be closest to the input data, and learning is performed. Does not update itself as a winner.

(E) Risk level calculation process The base unit 3 and the learning unit 4 calculate the risk level corresponding to the state quantity with reference to the risk distribution tables 32 and 42 in the risk level calculation units 33 and 43, respectively. As described above, since each state has a risk probability distribution, the risk probability distribution in state s is represented as p (R | s). The risk here corresponds to the risk in the teacher creation unit 6 and is divided into 11 levels, so the risk level R and the risk probability (distribution) p (R | s) are, for example, This is represented by the relationship shown in FIG.

The risk output basically outputs this risk probability p (R | s). However, when the output result is used for alarm or display, for example, it is difficult to use the probability distribution as it is. Calculates an expected value E expressed by the following equation (7).
E = Σ _R R · p (R | s) (7)

Further, when the state is handled stochastically, the expected value E is expressed by the following equation (8).
_{E = Σ s Σ R P (} s) · R · p (R│s) ... (8)

  The risk probability is learned by the learning unit 4 and updated sequentially. Basically, the risk probability is calculated using the frequency distribution of the risk level experienced in the past, but since this system is online learning, it is difficult to have data of infinity past, It is considered undesirable to have the same importance. Therefore, the risk probability is updated here by the following method.

When the risk probability of state s _t at time t and the p _t (R￨s _t), in accordance with the following equation (9), and updates the risk probability.
p _{t + 1} (R | s _t ) = p _t (R | s _t ) + β (9)

Further, the risk probability p _{t + 1} (R | s _t ) is normalized according to the following equation (10).
p _{t + 1} (R | s _t ) ← p _{t + 1} ( _R | s _t ) / ΣR p _{t + 1} ( _R | s _t ) (10)

Note that the status update is only the status at that time. When the states are handled stochastically, β is calculated as p (s _t ) · β in each state. Here, β is a constant, and the larger this value, the more important the current information is.

  Here, the teacher risk to be given is not always obtained for each frame, as described in the explanation of the teacher creation unit 6. When the risk level is high, risk information is often obtained from the driver data. However, when the risk level is low, there is a problem that the possibility of obtaining teacher information is particularly small.

  This system addresses this problem by propagating teacher risk information in the time axis direction. This is based on the causal relationship that if the teacher risk information is obtained at a certain time, it is dangerous even if the previous time is not the same as that time. To propagate.

  In this case, in order to propagate information in the past, it is necessary to memorize all past state transitions for the amount to be propagated. Become. Therefore, in this system, the risk probability is updated by propagation in consideration of a TD (Temporal Difference) error used in reinforcement learning.

  Reinforcement learning is not based on an explicit action instruction for the current state, but learning based on the reward for the action performed, and the action that maximizes the sum of the rewards that can be obtained in the future is It is a learning method that is selected from time to time, and the difference between the actual reward and the predicted value of the reward at time t is called a TD error (TD-ERROR), and learning is performed so that this is zero. The risk information of this system corresponds to the reward of this reinforcement learning, and as shown in FIG. 7, there should be risks in the states S2, S7,. Propagate risk information.

  In this case, propagation only needs to be propagated from the current state to the previous frame (that is, the calculation and storage need only be handled in relation to the previous frame), and the risk information is sufficient in one experience. Although it does not propagate to the past, by repeating the same experience, risk information gradually propagates and the causal relationship can be learned. Further, as shown in FIG. 8, the propagation of risk information is not only propagated from the state St at the same risk level at the time t to the state St-1 at the time t-1, but also between the states at different risk levels. I will let you. However, risk level 0 includes no risk information and no risk information, and therefore does not propagate.

The update of the risk probability p (r | s _t-1 ) due to propagation is performed by the following equation (11).
p (r | s _t-1 ) = p (r | s _t-1 ) + η · (RI (r) + γ · p (r | s _t ) −p (r | s _t-1 ))
+ H · η · (γ · p (r−1 | s _t ) −p (r ₋₁ | s _t−1 ))
+ H · η · (γ · p (r + 1 | s _t ) −p (r + ₁ | s _t−1 )) (11)
Where h is a parameter indicating the magnitude of propagation in the risk level direction
γ: Parameter indicating the magnitude of time series propagation
η: A parameter that represents the size of the update in a single learning

Here, the risk information obtained at time t is expressed as RI (r) using the risk level r. As described above, the risk information handled by the teacher creating unit 6 is assumed to be obtained with respect to a certain risk level among 11 stages of 0 to 10. That is, if the risk information obtained at time t is the risk level Q, it is expressed as in equations (12) and (13).
RI (r) = 1 (r = Q) (12)
RI (r) = 0 (r ≠ Q) (13)

  On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 9, the risk information RI (r) in this risk learning is expanded on the assumption that there is actually a risk near the risk level. More specifically, the expansion is performed by multiplying the adjacent risk level by g using the parameter g (g <1) and multiplying the adjacent risk level by g * g. There is an effect that limited teacher data can be used more effectively. Further, h representing the magnitude of propagation in the risk level direction is normally set to the same value as g used for expanding risk information.

After updating the risk probability, the teacher information coefficient coefficient e (t) used in the learning process in the fusion unit calculator 8 is set. The teacher information coefficient e (t) is set according to the following equations (14) and (15). The risk information obtained from the teacher creation unit 6 at time t is used as R,
When R ≠ 0
e (t) = 10 · R · p (R | s _t ) (14)
When R = 0
e (t) = const (15)

  When R = 0, this corresponds to the case where teacher information is not entered. In this case, the teacher information coefficient e (t) is a constant const, that is, a fixed value gain. This value is determined by the probability that a teacher risk can be obtained, and is set based on the ratio between the number of learning data with teacher and the number of learning data without teacher. In this system, as a rule of thumb, a constant const is set so that the number of learning data with teacher = the number of learning data without teacher is set, and const = 0.01.

  When teacher information is entered, the higher the probability and the higher the risk level, the stronger the learning. Thereby, when the probability of recognizing an event that has actually occurred is low, it indicates that there is a high possibility that the recognition of the state is wrong, and learning is weakened. The representative vector in that state is learned so that it recognizes the same state and approaches data with a high probability of risk. As such learning continues, the input data is easily recognized as another state, and it is difficult to recognize a state that is likely to be wrong. In this way, state recognition and risk recognition as a whole are optimized.

(F) Fusion Risk Recognition Processing The risk level by the base unit 3 (hereinafter referred to as “base risk level”) and the risk level by the learning unit 4 (hereinafter referred to as “learning risk level”) are predetermined in the fusion calculation unit 10. (Fusing rate) αf, and sent to the fusion unit 5. Specifically, the risk level output to the fusion unit 5 is calculated by weighted averaging the base risk level and the learning risk level with the fusion rate αf.

  Further, every time the learning SOM 41 of the learning unit 4 is updated, the fusion calculation unit 10 fuses the two SOMs of the base SOM 31 of the base unit 3 and the learning SOM 41 of the learning unit 4, and determines the fusion SOM 51 of the fusion unit 5. Update. The fusion of the two SOMs is performed by fusing the corresponding winner neurons of the base SOM 31 and the learning SOM 41 at the fusion rate αf, and updating each neuron according to the fused winner neurons.

  The fusion rate αf at that time is controlled according to the number of learnings of the winning neuron of the learning SOM 41, the similarity between the parameters of the base SOM 31 and the parameters of the learning SOM 41, and the combination of the number of learnings and the similarity. Hereinafter, an example in which the fusion rate is calculated according to the number of learnings and the SOM fusion parameter is calculated based on the fusion rate, using the flowchart of the fusion rate and fusion parameter calculation process shown in FIG.

  In this process, first, in step S1, the winner neuron number of the learning SOM 41 is input, and the histogram of the number of learning times of n neurons is updated as shown in FIG. Next, the process proceeds to step S2, and using the updated histogram, the fusion rate αfi (i = 1, 2,..., N: 0 ≦ αfi ≦ 1) for each neuron is calculated according to the number of learnings of the winner neuron. .

  For example, as shown in FIG. 12, the fusion rate αf is calculated by creating a table indicating the relationship between the number of learnings and the fusion rate αf in advance. In the table of FIG. 12, the fusion rate αf is linearly increased until the number of learning reaches the predetermined set number NL so that the online learning is stably operated by gradually increasing the fusion rate, and the number of learning is the set number of times. After reaching NL, the fusion rate αf is set to a constant value αfL (for example, αfL = 0.5).

After calculating the fusion rate αf in step S2, the process proceeds to step S3, and the parameter Ci of the fusion SOM 51 is calculated. The parameter Ci of the fusion SOM 51 is calculated by weighting the neuron parameter Bi of the base SOM 31 and the neuron parameter Li of the learning SOM 41 with the fusion rate αfi, as shown in the following equation (16).
Ci = (1−αfi) · Bi + αfi · Li (16)

  Thereby, in the fusion unit 5, the base SOM 31 that maintains the pre-learning result and the learning SOM 41 that reflects the online learning result are fused, and the only risk level is based on the relationship between the fusion SOM 51 and the fusion risk level. It is determined and output to the display device of the vehicle 1 or the like.

  An output example of the risk recognition result by the above processing is shown in FIG. FIGS. 13A to 13D are output images of a system in which the recognition result is displayed on the image obtained from the in-vehicle camera. The magnitude of the recognized risk is represented by bar graphs B1 to B4 at the bottom of each screen. It is represented by The recognition risks represented by the bar graphs B1 to B4 indicate the expected value of the risk probability described above, and the numbers displayed thereon are the recognized state numbers.

  The two images shown in FIGS. 13A and 13B are scenes in which pedestrians and oncoming vehicles are not nearby and are considered to be low in risk, and FIGS. 13C and 13D. The two images shown in Fig. 13 are a one-lane road with a narrow road and an oncoming vehicle, the road width is further reduced, and a left-turn scene at an intersection. The risks are shown in Fig. 13 (a). , (B) is a scene that seems to have a higher risk.

  Here, “the risk is considered to be low (high)” is described because there is no absolute value that the number of risk values for each image. From the recognition results of this system, it can be seen that the scenes of FIGS. 13C and 13D are recognized as having a higher risk than the scenes of FIGS. 13A and 13B.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the pre-learning result held in the base unit 3 and the online learning result held in the learning unit 4 are fused, and the fusion result is held in the fusion unit 5 to obtain the final result. Perform risk recognition. As a result, it is possible not only to avoid the forgetting of prior knowledge and prevent recognition performance deterioration due to partial learning, but also to improve the reliability and performance of risk recognition processing by operating online learning stably. Basic performance can be ensured while specializing in accordance with the user's usage environment.

  In addition, learning in risk recognition is performed for the neurons in the learning unit 4 having the same number as the SOM neuron determined in the fusion unit 5, and the winner neuron is not determined in parallel in the learning unit 4. Can be reduced. In addition, there is no discrepancy between the numbers of winner neurons, and recognition performance deterioration due to partial learning can be avoided.

  Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the second form, the fusion unit 5 of the first form is omitted, and the base unit 3 'and the learning unit 4' are operated in parallel.

  That is, as shown in FIG. 14, in the second embodiment, the base unit 3 ′ includes a base SOM 31, a base risk distribution table 32, and a risk level calculation unit 33 similar to those in the first embodiment, and further includes a base risk level. A table 34 is provided. The learning unit 4 ′ includes a learning SOM 41, a learning risk distribution table 42, and a risk level calculation unit 43 that are the same as those in the first embodiment, and further includes a learning risk level table 44.

  In the second mode, the fusion unit calculation unit 8 of the first mode is used as a dedicated data calculation for each of the base unit 3 ′ and the learning unit 4 ′. In addition, a fusion calculation unit 13 is provided that combines the base risk level output from the base unit 3 and the learning risk level output from the learning unit 4 ′. In addition, the teacher creation unit 6, the image feature amount extraction unit 7, and the learning amount calculation unit 9 are the same as in the first embodiment.

  In the second mode, the base unit 3 'and the learning unit 4' operate in parallel, and the base risk level and the learning risk level are output from each. The operation of each unit is the same as in the first embodiment, but the learning process is performed using the winner neuron determined by the learning unit 4 '. The base risk level and the learning risk level output from each unit 3 ′, 4 ′ are merged at the fusion rate αf and output as the only risk level, as in the first embodiment.

  Also in the second mode, similarly to the first mode, it is possible to avoid forgetting prior knowledge and prevent recognition performance deterioration due to partial learning. Furthermore, in the second embodiment, the base unit 3 ′ and the learning unit 4 ′ perform calculations in parallel, so that the calculation tends to be redundant compared to the first embodiment, but the system configuration can be simplified. it can.

1 Online Risk Learning System 3 Base Unit 4 Learning Unit 5 Fusion Unit 8 Fusion Unit Calculation Unit 10 Fusion Calculation Unit αf Fusion Rate

Claims (6)

An online risk learning system that detects the external environment of a mobile object and recognizes the risks contained in the external environment in a learning manner.
A base unit for holding the prior learning result of the risk, and a learning unit for holding the online learning result of the risk,
An online risk learning system characterized in that the risk level of the base unit and the risk level of the learning unit are fused at a predetermined fusion rate and output as the only online risk level.   The online risk learning system according to claim 1, wherein the fusion rate is controlled according to the number of learnings of the learning unit.   The online risk learning system according to claim 1, wherein the fusion rate is controlled according to a similarity between a learning parameter of the base unit and a learning parameter of the learning unit.   2. The online risk learning system according to claim 1, wherein the fusion rate is controlled by combining the number of learnings of the learning unit and the similarity between the learning parameter of the base unit and the learning parameter of the learning unit. .   The fusion unit which fuses and holds the pre-learning result of the base unit and the online learning result of the learning unit is provided, and the unique risk level is output from the fusion unit. The online risk learning system according to any one of the above.   The base unit and the learning unit are operated in parallel, and the risk level output from each unit is merged at the fusion rate and output as the only risk level. The online risk learning system described in 1.